Pickleball, anyone?
COVID-19 pandemic’s limitations helped grow sport in Memphis area
SSpecial to Memphis Commercial Appeal uzanne Baum was, like most of us during the early stages of the pandemic, becoming stir crazy. h “During COVID, I wanted to be outside and some of my girlfriends had started playing pickleball,” she said. “I just got into it. From the second I learned how to play, it became an addiction. It’s ridiculous.” h She is not alone. h Pickleball, invented in the mid-1960s in the Seattle area, has gained a paddle-hold in the Mid-south, following a national explosion of a sport often referred to as a cross between tennis, badminton and ping pong. Courts have been popping up throughout Memphis and its suburbs since the start of the pandemic in early 2020.
Germantown converted its two tennis courts at Cameron Brown Park into eight pickleball courts, and they have become a gathering spot for enthusiasts. Bartlett recently opened new courts at Shadowlawn Park. There are plans for Collierville, which offers indoor play on four courts at the Cox Center gym and outdoor play at tennis courts at Frank Road and Byhalia, to build up to eight pickleball courts.
There are indoor and outdoor court options at the Memphis Jewish Community Center. And there are other courts throughout the Memphis area, including the University Club. Cordova is home to membership-only Willow Grove Farms, a lighted, six-court venue billed as a Pickleball Paradise owned and operated by Larry Mitchell, a certified pickleball instructor.
“We haven’t done a whole lot of advertising,” said Mitchell, who moved to Memphis several years ago after three decades as a contractor in Florida. “We opened up (with a) word-of-mouth membership (drive) and within four days we had 90 members.”
Mitchell’s property includes a lake, a party barn, horses, mules and three fully furnished houses for lodging. He has hosted pickleball tournaments at Willow Grove and, earlier this month, hosted a clinic featuring three-time national champion Brett Noel.
Why is pickleball so popular?
In pickleball, players use a paddle to strike a wiffle ball over a low, tennis-like net on a much smaller surface (20by-44 feet) than a tennis court (27by-78). Doubles — two players on each side of the net — is the preferred game, although singles can be played. The first to score 11 points, by at least a margin of two points, wins. Serves are underhand and the ball must bounce on each side of the court before a volley can be struck. There’s a non-volley zone seven feet from the net on each side.
According to the USA Pickleball Association, there are roughly 3 million playing the sport nationwide. Seventyfive percent are 55 years old or older.
Baum, from Memphis, was playing on a recent cool, crisp Saturday morning at Cameron Brown Park, whose courts are routinely crowded. As players returned shots with loud thwacks that echoed through the courtside pines, dozens waited for their turn to compete.
“I’m so grateful for this because I’ve met so many people,” Baum said. “You don’t have to text or call anybody. You just show up and play.”
Most Memphis-area players point to the pandemic’s impact for the increasing local popularity.
Taylor H. Taylor, a former tennis instructor at the University Club and The Racquet Club and a highly regarded junior tennis player, became intrigued by the sport three years ago and has become immersed in its growth. She’s also become an accomplished competitor, participating in national tournaments.
“I started about three years ago and everybody thought I was crazy,” said Taylor, 49, a Memphian who was a member of the University of Virginia women’s tennis team that was ranked nationally in the Top 25. “The growth of the sport was mammothly jump-started during the pandemic.
“And once we got the (Cameron Brown) courts out in Germantown that really helped. And now we’ve outgrown Cameron Brown. We need some public courts in Memphis proper.”
Taylor says the popularity is traced to the sport’s simplicity. It’s an easy game to pick up, and it appeals to all age groups and skill levels. And there’s a relatively small amount of court to cover.
“It eliminates so many athletic and generational barriers,” she said. “You don’t have to be that athletic to play.”
‘The pickleball thing is real now’
Taylor travels around the country and teaches prospective instructors. She also conducts local clinics, usually through community parks and recreation departments.
But the majority of her time has been spent working with Picklemania, a local nonprofit she established to provide life lessons (a social and emotional learning curriculum) through pickleball in underserved communities.
“It’s a curriculum that I wrote,” she said. “But I’ve had my hand in everything (pickleball related). I went down to Naples (Florida) a few years ago and watched the U.S. Open and remember saying: `Is this for real?’ I saw that it was, and I wanted to be a part of it.”
Being told she could never play tennis again because of knee surgeries made it easier for Taylor to immerse herself in the sport. She left her job at The Racquet Club — shortly before it closed three years ago — to start the nonprofit.
“The pickleball thing is real now,” she said. “People are playing professionally and the sport is on (national sports cable networks). And there are tournaments somewhere in the U.S., and around the world, every weekend.”
“From the second I learned how to play (pickleball), it became an addiction. It’s ridiculous.” Suzanne Baum
During the pandemic, Taylor said her nonprofit painted 30 pickleball courts in homeowners’ driveways “to help support our nonprofit” and allow people to get outside and play with family and friends.
“We are now getting calls for people who want (permanent) courts in their backyards,” Taylor said. “In 10 years, I’m guessing people won’t have swimming pools in their backyards. They’ll have pickleball courts.”
Taylor is involved in the construction of pickleball courts in association with Bladerunner Turf & Sports Courts, a Memphis-based company.
A pickleball court costs roughly $30,000, according to Taylor.
Still, the greatest growth appears to be at public parks and public indoor facilities in the Memphis suburbs and in various clubs inside the city limits. Taylor said her group recently painted pickleball lines on the tennis courts at The Artesian, a 16-story condo on Riverside Drive. Her group has also been involved with pickleball work at the Memphis Hunt and Polo Club, Memphis Country Club and the MJCC.
“Everything we do goes back into our nonprofit,” Taylor said. “Every lesson I teach, every paddle I sell or every court we paint we put the money back in to help support building courts and putting pickleball in the under-resourced communities. We want a court in every community. That’s our goal.”
Taylor said she’d love to see pickleball courts at Liberty Park, the $200 million development project at the old Memphis Fairgrounds.
“They may be figuring out how to make it happen there,” Taylor said.
Pickleball delivers competition and camaraderie
Gary Grear, owner of String `n Swing tennis shop near Ridgeway and Primacy Parkway, said the growth of the sport has forced him to provide more space in his store to pickleball equipment. A wall in the store that displayed tennis racquets now shares space with pickleball paddles and cartons of wiffle balls.
“We’re ordering stuff as fast as we can get it in,” Grear said. “Before the pandemic hit, it was a very small percentage of our business. It’s been growing every month since.”
Kenneth Jennings, 56, of Memphis, has been playing for three years. He’s played tournaments in the region, winning an event in Tupelo, but says he enjoys the competition as much as the camaraderie.
“I’ve met some of the nicest people you can meet,” he said.
Baum said pickleball was a godsend during the pandemic. With most athletic clubs closed during the early stages, most people were exercising in front of their televisions or ipads.
“I was doing Pure Barre, but I was stuck in my room with my mat,” she said. “It was lonesome and isolating. This has been great. We played all winter. We played with our puff coats and wore gloves with the fingers
Scoring
Points are scored only by the serving team.
Games are normally played to 11 points, win by 2.
Tournament games may be to 15 or 21, win by 2.
Two-bounce Rule
When the ball is served, the receiving team must let it bounce before returning, and then the serving team must let it bounce before returning, thus two bounces.
After the ball has bounced once in each team’s court, both teams may either volley the ball (hit the ball before it bounces) or play it off a bounce (ground stroke).
The two-bounce rule eliminates the serve and volley advantage and extends rallies. cut out.”
Wayne Landry, 66, and recently retired from Fedex, is a regular at the Cameron Brown courts as is Dee Dee Wolbrecht, 56, of Memphis. She said she was introduced to the sport 20 years by a professor at the University of Memphis.
“He told me: `Mark my words; this sport is going to takeoff,’ ” she said. “I just love it. It’s the best thing that ever happened to me.”
While the game skews to an older audience, the courts at Cameron Brown on a Saturday morning represented a cross-section of ages, from the 30s to the 70s. Taylor’s assistant at the clinic was an 18-year-old.
What was apparent from the friendly atmosphere surrounding the gathering — and the crowds steadily streaming to the courts — is pickleball’s popularity in the area remains strong.
“I could talk about pickleball all day, I could play pickleball all day,” Taylor said. “I tell people the only thing that’s sore when I finish playing pickleball is my face ... from smiling so much.”
Freelancer Phil Stukenborg is a former staff writer and deputy sports editor for The Commercial Appeal.
You can email him at philstukenborg@gmail.com